by Kyle, Celia
“Oh, all right. Fine. But you’ll follow our lead.”
“You mean you want to go first?” Solair chuckles and gestures down the sluice. “By all means, lead on.”
Brax growls, and then turns about to trudge up the pipe. Our crew falls in with them, and the others seem friendly enough. Except for Gyn, who seems to be the strong silent type.
“Are you sure we can trust them, Solair?”
He turns to me and shrugs.
“What’s that Varia said? The enemy of my enemy is my ally?”
“Close enough.” She squints at the massive back of Brax. “I recognize the big guy. He used to be a pit fighter, but I don’t know the others.”
“I recognize the Shorcu.” Fiona nods to herself. “He was recently put on trial on Titanus Vox. Found innocent, but then his house got burned down and he went missing.”
“Well, he landed on his feet.”
Brax holds his fist in the air, and we all halt in our tracks. He comes back to confer with Solair.
“My man Gyn’s eyes work much better than ours. He claims that a quarter mile down the tunnel it opens up into the industrial park, but there are over a dozen guards.”
“I see. If you take the left flank, we’ll take the right.”
“Ha.” Brax guffaws with great peals of laughter. “You’ll be lucky if we leave you any scraps at all. Contras—attack!”
Their crew takes off at a dead run, and we fall in behind them. I’m more than willing to let these apparent Contras take the brunt of the enemy’s assault.
Weapons discharge as soon as the blue-sky aperture comes into view, as Brax’s crew unload with high-tech, high-caliber weaponry. Except for Phyn’Ro, who is throwing daggers. Daggers.
Who brings a knife to a gun fight?
The Star Crushers aren’t amateurs. They utilize concrete slabs as cover. This puts the Contras at a disadvantage because there’s no shelter to be had in the smooth walls of the flood sluice.
Our unit comes up to offer fire support, laying down a suppressive barrage that gives the Contras a chance to storm their front line. Brax lashes out with his massive foot and smashes one of the concrete barriers to rubble, sending the men behind it flying through the air to land in crumpled heaps. I ply my weak force pistol to good effect, dissolving another of the barriers so Kintar and Montier can lay waste with their rifles.
When the smoke clears, we are the only ones left standing.
“Casualties?” Solair glances around at our crew.
“We’re all unharmed, Captain.” I eject a spent energy cartridge from my pistol and slap in a new one. “Let’s go get our people.”
The Contras are already swarming across the industrial yard, busting in the rear entrance without slowing down. We hasten to follow, and it’s rather impressive how much havoc they wreak.
I find many bodies of Star Crushers with daggers stuck out of them. Maybe I should add some of those fine toys to my own arsenal? It’s a puzzle for another time, however, as we are met with more resistance.
If it were just us Kilgari and our human mates, this would be a terrible slog. But with the Contras on our side, we make short work of the opposition. I barely have to fire my weapon as we take the first floor.
Eschewing the elevator—those things are death traps when the enemy has control—we all surge up the steps. I actually pass the Contras on the stairs because my desire to see Thrase to safety trumps my good sense.
Bursting out of the stairwell, I scream in fury as I cut down four Star Crusher Kreetu with my weak force pistol. Then I continue on, melting my way through one of the access doors we couldn’t pass earlier.
My heart rate quickens when I realize we’re in a holding cell area. But I pass by empty room after empty barred room, my gut bottoming out when I get to the end and I don’t find her.
But I do find a battered, blood stained, but smiling Lokyer in the last cell.
“I knew you’d come for me,” he says, tears welling in his eyes. “Did Swipt and Ilya make it back to the ship?”
“They did. Your heroism was not in vain.” I melt the bars away into steaming piles of gray ooze and rush to his side. “Are you injured?”
“You think?” He grimaces as I help him to his feet. “But I’ll damn well walk out of here.”
I hesitate to ask, given his condition, but I’m spurred on by thoughts of Thrase.
“Did you see where they’re holding Thrase, Lokyer?”
“Thrase?” He chuckles as I help him stagger out into the corridor. “She’s been nothing short of brilliant. I mean, she’s still working with them. I’m pretty sure she convinced that bag of tumors Dr. Mal that she was on their side.”
“She’s not a captive?”
“No, not at all.”
“You think she betrayed us?”
“No, because otherwise I’d be dead. I think we got a girl on the inside. She’s probably up on the roof escaping into their shuttle with the rest of the noncombatant staff.”
Kintar comes into view, and I shove Lokyer’s battered body into his arms. Then I take off at a dead run for the stairwell. I don’t deign to answer Solair’s inquiry as I flash past him and race up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Damn it, so many floors to go, and so little time. When I’m within sight of the top level, I can hear the whine of the shuttle’s engines. Sounds like one of Helios Combine manufacture, which means it won’t take long to get off the roof.
Bursting out of the roof access door, I cry out in frustration as the vaguely cylindrical silver shuttle begins to lift off the roof. But the rear bay doors have yet to fully close. Tossing my rifle down to divest myself of its weight, I stretch my legs out to their fullest and leap over empty sky.
My fingers barely manage to gain purchase on the slick metal bay door, and I struggle to haul myself inside. I make it into the interior, avoiding a terrible crushing death by mere inches.
I’ve made it. But my elation is short lived when I realize it’s just me against an entire ship full of enemies.
Nonetheless, my determination to find Thrase does not falter. Drawing my pistol, I creep along the darkened corridor, intent on any signs of danger.
Chapter Eighteen
Thrase
“Any progress with that?” Standing by the doorway, Dr. Mal crosses his arms and looks at the metal station where Num has been strapped. The poor creature is chirping unhappily, its wide eyes following the rotating monitors as they scan his body. I was instructed to perform an analysis of the quantum field it uses but, instead of doing that, I’ve been trying to work on a solution to undo its poor state.
So far, no progress.
“It’ll take some time,” I reply, and Mal just shakes his head with vague disinterest.
“Never mind that thing right now,” he continues. “We have bigger fish to fry. Come with me, Thrase.” Without waiting for me to say something, he turns on his heels and marches back the way he came. I offer Num a sad smile and then follow after Dr. Mal, letting him lead through the corridors of the ship we’re in.
It probably wasn’t a wise decision to escape with the Starcorp staff, but I couldn’t throw away this opportunity to really dig into what they’re doing here. They don’t want to waste any time either, and quickly put me to work after our escape shuttle arrived at this Starcop orbital ship.
“What’s this about?” I ask him after a couple of minutes of walking.
“We have a new patient for you to experiment on,” he replies in that cold tone of his, his eyes still focused on the path ahead. “We found one of your old golden friends sneaking around. The Kilgari are interesting subjects, and I think they merit a closer look.”
“Why’s that?” I continue, my heart tightening as I try to guess who they might have captured. “Anything special about them?”
“We had a few Kilgari subjects a few months ago, and our initial research indicated that certain compounds excreted by their endocrine system have qualities that m
ight aid our research. Unfortunately, those compounds are only excreted during extreme duress.”
Only then does he look back at me, his shark smile telling the rest of the story. They weren’t able to continue with their research because the subjects died after being put under “extreme duress.” Not a good omen.
“Here we are.” Putting his right eye in front of an access panel, he lets the machinery do its retinal scan. A fraction of a second later and a door slides back into its partition. I follow him inside what looks like an operating room, and my heart skips a beat as I see that the Kilgari they’ve captured is Zander. He’s been strapped to a medical chair, but he doesn’t seem hurt.
“I’m familiar with this one,” I say, doing my best to keep a clinical tone. Hard to do when you’re looking at your fated mate, but I pull it off all the same. “He’s a healthy specimen. That’s good.”
“You know what you have to do. Don’t you?” Dr. Mal asks me, ignoring Zander and looking straight at me. Once I nod, that blood curling smile appears on his lips once more. “Good. I’ll leave you to it, then. I’ll expect results in an hour.”
With that, he marches out of the room, and I only realize I had been holding my breath when the door closes behind him. Exhaling, I turn around and rush toward Zander.
“God, I missed you,” I say, throwing my arms over his shoulders and embracing him. “When you fell from that window, I thought you were dead.”
“Like you said, I’m a healthy specimen.”
“Really funny.” Smiling, I look into his eyes and do the next logical thing. I lean in and brush my lips against his, that chemical cocktail unleashed by his touch once more coursing through my veins. Moving fast, I remove the straps holding him in place. “You know what that bastard wants me to do. Don’t you?”
“Evidently,” he replies. “He wants you to stimulate my physiological system to produce an endocrine response. In layman’s terms, he wants you to torture me. I say we dismantle whatever we can inside this room, fashion a couple of half-decent weapons, and fight our way out.”
“Whoa, calm down.” Grabbing him by the wrist, I stop him from dismantling the chair he had been strapped to. “I have a better idea. There are other ways we can encourage your endocrine system to produce the same compounds he is looking for.”
“Other ways? Such as?”
I hold my breath, look into his eyes, and then allow that chemical cocktail running through my veins to flood my brain. Even though I’ve never been the kind of woman to do it easily, I let my instincts take the steering wheel.
“Isn’t it obvious?” I ask him. “We do it through an endorphin rush.” His eyes widen as he realizes what I’ve just said, but I don’t give him the time to say anything. Before he knows it, I’ve thrown myself at him, my lips crashing against his.
The moment our lips touch, one single word takes over my mind: inevitable. What’s going to happen is inevitable. I don’t know what it is about him, but there’s no denying that there’s a magnetic pull between us, one that allows no resistance. Deep down, I already knew that’s how it works with jalshagar, but now that I’ve kissed him again… there’s absolutely no doubt about the connection between us.
Placing my hands on his chest, I feel the hard contour of his pectorals and the steady beat of his heart. I flatten my palms against him, enjoying the warmth that filters through his shirt, and then press my body against his. Even though we still have layers of clothing between us, the moment I press my breasts against his chest a sudden heat wave takes over my body.
Unable to restrain myself, I bring my hands down to his waist and hook my fingers on his belt. I unbuckle it with quick movements, and then pull it free from its loops. My knuckles brush against the two hard shapes hiding underneath his pants, and my heart immediately tightens inside my chest. I had my suspicions about his size, but only now am I starting to realize the difference between him and a regular human, never mind the fact that he’s a double-wielder.
Holding my breath, I move my hands up, sliding them underneath his shirt. I feel the hard contour of his abs underneath my palms, every single muscle of his so damn perfect it seems like someone carved him out of a block of marble, and then pull his shirt over his head.
“Holy shit,” I mutter under my breath, creating some space between our bodies so I can take in his naked torso. His strong build was already evident, even if I had never seen him naked before, but I didn’t know to expect such perfection. I had only sneaked a peek at his chest in the Queen’s armory, but now that I am this close to him… “Are you even real?”
“As real as it gets,” he says, a lustful grin on his lips, and then pushes me back against the wall. He tears into me as if he can’t control his animalistic urges, and gets rid of my lab coat and shirt with one quick movement. His eyes widen as he sees the swell of my breasts, and one of his hands shoots up my back, his fingers quickly finding the clasp on my bra. The moment he undoes it, my breasts spill out, and he moves in for the kill without missing a beat.
Pressing his mouth on the skin between my breasts, he then runs his tongue up and wraps his lips around one hard nipple, sucking it into his mouth. With one hand cupping my other breast, he allows his other one to dip down, and he flattens his palm between my legs. Pressing down hard, he starts massaging my aching wetness with circular motions, and that sends thunder and lightning up my spine.
I start losing all control then, and I return the favor by pressing one hand down between his legs, the hard shapes of his two cocks throbbing against my fingers. I wrap my fingers around one of them, ignoring the fabric of his pants, and start stroking him as hard as I can. Then, needing more, I hook my fingers on his waistband and pull both his pants and boxers down. His cocks springs free right away, slapping me across the back of my hand, and my breath catches in my throat once I look down at them.
He’s not big, nor is he large—he is absolutely massive.
I’m about to grip one of his cocks when he grabs me by the wrist, peeling my arm back. I look up into his eyes, and the flames of lust burning there make my insides clench. Most men have something similar to that look when they really want you, but I’ve never seen anything like this. He’s looking at me as if he wants to own more than just my body… it’s almost as if he wants to devour both my body and my soul.
“You’re mine,” he says and then yanks my pants down my legs. Suddenly feeling very exposed and vulnerable, I become as wet as I’ve ever been, my thong so damn drenched it’s already sticking to my skin in an uncomfortable way. Thankfully, he knows exactly how to solve that problem.
Grabbing my thong by the elastic band, he pulls it against my outer thigh with one quick movement, and a moment later I hear the sound of the fabric ripping apart. Now completely naked, I take one deep breath and ready myself for what’s about to happen.
“C’mere,” he growls, picking me up from the floor and carrying me toward the work bench on the side. I sit on the edge of it, my feet dangling, and chomp on my bottom lip. “You have no idea how much I want you right now.”
Gently, his mouth dips into my neck, his lips caressing my naked skin. He takes his time as he allows his tongue to travel down, and I close my eyes once I feel its warmth on the valley between my breasts. When his tongue climbs up my breast, he twirls it around my hard nipple for a second and then sucks it into his mouth. With his lips wrapped tightly around my bud, he laps at it with his tongue.
Pressing my thighs together, I feel them slick with my juices, and Zander’s quick to flatten his hand between them once more. The warmth I was feeling there turns into a scorching heat and, reacting on instinct, I thrust against his hand.
“You’re so wet,” he whispers, his lips moving around my nipple. Brushing one fingertip up the length of my inner lips, he brings it up to my clit and then presses down on the patch of flesh above it. Immediately, lightning shoots up my spine, and thunder explodes inside my mind. My thoughts take flight, like doves after a gunshot, and my ratio
nal side shuts down. I become pure instinct.
“That feels so good,” I mutter, enjoying the circular motion of his finger. He keeps stroking my clit until my whole body’s quivering with anticipation, and then he dips down to my wet inner lips. Parting them, he eases his finger inside me, exploring my warm insides. Another moan escapes from between my lips, and that’s what when he slides one more finger in. He curls both of them up, just like a fishing hook, and drives them all the way until they’re pressed against my g-spot.
Keeping the pressure up with his fingers, he finally releases my clit and allows his mouth to wander down my naked body. Lying down on the cold metal bench, I smile as I feel his lips going over my flat stomach, and then his tongue heads straight toward my inner thighs.
He tastes the fluids coating my skin, just like a predator having its first taste of his next meal, and then crushes his lips against my clit. His tongue comes down like a whip, inflicting the sweetest of punishments upon my clit, and flames of pleasure start encircling my body and soul.
Reaching for him, I take hold of his horns, my fingers wrapped tightly around their smooth surface. I keep him in place, trapping his mouth against my clit, and then throw my legs over his shoulders. Pushing his shoulders forward, he forces my spine to roll up, and then opens his mouth wide to enjoy the vulnerable angle I’m in.
His fingers and tongue work in complete sync, the electricity crackling on that hidden spot inside me blending with the fire in my clit. It’s absolutely maddening, and I mean that in the best of ways. Deep down, I already knew a man like him would know how to handle a woman, but I never thought he’d be this good. We’re only in the pre-game right now, and he has already blown my mind. I mean, if he’s this incredible right now, the rest of it is going to be something else.
Placing his hands on my backside, his fingers digging into my flesh, he holds me up as he devours me. He does it in an almost savage way, eating me out as if I were the most delicious thing there was in the universe, and that makes me grin. Most men go down on a woman because they expect her to return the favor, but not him. There’s true enjoyment and raw lust in what he’s doing. That makes a world of difference.